Chuck Lewis, investigative journalist, politely listens to wingnuts at Silha Lecture Wednesday

Charles “Chuck” Lewis, spoke at the University of Minnesota as part of the Silha Center for the Study of Media Ethics and Law anniversary.

He's pretty amazing, talking about public service journalism, editorial spinelessness, and private interests' intimidation.

During his speech, he disclosed some of the internal controversies that he's run into in his years as an investigative journalist for ABC, CBS, and the Center for Public Integrity.

My favorites:

• ABC canceled an extensive report on a situation near Love Canal where Occidental dumped three times as many chemicals into the local drinking water supply as at Love Canal. His footage and information from a hundred or so interviews never made it out of the network.

• The head of CBS put pressure on 60 minutes' Mike Wallace not to report on the cigarette industry because the he was also head of a cigarette company. Wallace supposedly told him to go to hell.

• The Center for Public Integrity was sued by Russian oligarchs. Lewis comments, "I hate when that happens." Their insurer lost more than $4 million fighting the case, which caused them to drop the center from its insurance. That spurred Lewis to raise a $5 million endowment and get guarantees that prestigious firms would do pro-bono work if the center was sued. According to Lewis, it's providing a model for the small non-profits that are sprouting up, to defend them from powerful moneyed interests. He said his legal philosophy now would be that a good offense is the best defense.

• He talked a lot about the dangers of private power (which is often discussed), mentioning that very few Pulitzers have been given for business reporting, largely because they face well-funded lawyers that threaten corporations' bottom lines. He rightly emphasized the impact of the Clinton-supported Telecommunications Act of 1996, which allowed these cautious (with news) reckless (with money) corporations to buy up the old media and help gut its public service arms.

Unfortunately, the earlier MPR interview, where Lewis stated that investigative journalism is about holding authorities accountable and getting the "bastards," brought in its share of wingnuts (not that those aren't awesome and true statements).

They asked at length, in a packed room, about the 9/11 commission, Pakistan, their travels to other parts of the world, and their problems with cable journalism (and one guy tried to get everyone to raise their hands to take a survey, really). Lewis was polite, but they wasted time for those of us who came to hear about investigative journalism, a different animal, after all, than MSNBC.

MPR Interview: